A soldiers story
by Sephirothmeteorholy
Summary: This story is about Clouds past. It will feature his training, daily solider life ect ect. It will end just as they're about to leave to check the faultly reactors.


**A soldiers story**

**Chapter 1. Tragedy**

The night was dark, like a thick blanket of empty space wrapped neatly around a gathering of ever watchful stars; their gaze was like a hypnotic reflection of how beautiful they really were; each one in equal value as the one that followed it. In the centre of this blanket of empty space, the jem that lit the night sky beamed in all its glory, lighting the mountain path; It shone a magnificent white, like it had been woven from the fabrics of the most expensive silk, by the most delicate of hands. It had a strange sense of personality, like it held its own persona. It's face never moving, yet the gentle feeling that it had a soul always remained. The mountains on the other hand held a sense of coldness and evil that sent shivers up your spine it's murky gray sides completely devoid of emotion. The winding rock paths crunched under the feet of the five children as they hastilly walked across the treaturous paths. Thunder rumbled inside the belly of the heavens, as any minute they appeared to shower the onlookers with pleasant rain.

The younger of the group tried to reason with the leading party member. " Wait up, wait up, it's dangerous up ahead remember what our parents said, they said never ever to go past our village ... Tifa !"

The girl, Tifa, had just recently lost her mother. Due to the overwhelming flood of sadness, she ran out of the house and decided to head for the mountains.

The sea of crystal like tears and echoing upsetment blanked out the cries of reason from her concerned friends. The calm breeze swiftly turned into a biting wind that whistled violently throughout the area. The group consisted of a girl named Tifa and several other children from the village. The place were they all lived was a little just at the foot of th mountains. It was rather poor and relied heavilly on passing tourism. Tifa, was actually the only girl who had higher standards than the rest of them. Her long black hair shone brightly with the help of the glowing moon. She wore a luxourious sparkling dress, a beautiful turkoise colour that seemed to wrap around her like a blanket because of the biting winds. The high heels she wore made her look taller than she really was. Looking into her eyes was like looking into a well of tears erupting from the ground.

Back at the village one boy had just gotten word of what had happened and ran off to catch her up. He was the boy who was always left out of everything the other kids did. He was never invited in to the group, always watching and hoping that one day he might once be asked to join in. Growing up with these feeling made him an angry child, always picking fights whenever and whereever he could. Sometimes for absolutely no reason he would just attack without warning, this of course, didn't help his social status. He had always admired Tifa from afar, but she never really noticed him that much. He ran as rast as he could to get to the mountains. His crisp golden hair followed slowly behind as the wind pushed it back. He wrapped the end in a ponytail to stop it interfearing with his eyesite. His shabby white t-shirt looked as though a hundred moths had feasted upon it in starvation. His blue jeans were covered in dirt and other strange substances.

He continued to run as fast as he could, the cold night air circulating around his lungs making it harder for him to breath, but that didn't let that stop him. His intensifying blue eyes became serious as he focused upon getting Tifa back safely. He ran towards the back of the village and eventually, past it towards the mountains. At the entrance, an old looking sign sat neatly in the ground "Mt. Nibel"

Cloud began shouting for Tifa, but the only response he got was his own echoing loudly in the midnight air. As he progressed further, he could see several Silhouettes in the distance. Again he began running towards them. When he got closer however, he noticed one of the figures was some kind of wolf like creature ontop of a child from the village. His heartrate began to rise and droplets of sweat glinted in the light as they slid nervously down his forehead. His instincts were telling him to go back and forget about the child, but he was raised better than that. It bore its snarling teeth at the child snapping and growling. Drool dribbled off its ugly features and it's razor sharp claws were digging into the soft skin of his arms. The childs head quicky turned at Cloud, his quivering voice pleading for help, his eyes filling up with tears.

Cloud wasn't sure what to do, should he risk his own life to save someone he didn't really care about? He thought to himself _" that thing is my way so i've got no choice, no matter which way a look at it"_

He slowly bent down to pick up a medium sized rock, and began throwing it up and down in one hand waiting for the right time to strike. " come on monster man, let's see if you've got the balls to pick on someone bigger than you!"

_" Crap ... maybe that wasn't such a good idea"_

It let go of the child and began walking over to Cloud. He threw the rock as fast as he could. Cutting through the wind it hit the creature in the stomach causing it to stop for no more than a few seconds. " you run on ahead while it's distracted"

"But what about you?"

" Since when as anyone given a chocobos ass about me?"

"Ok i'll go after Tifa."

Cloud began taking steps back,the fear started to rise, the anxiety started to aggitate him. The beast started to run for cloud; this caused panick to set in. As it lept to deliver a killing blow, Cloud sholder barged it which sent it falling to its doom. Cries could be heard from the beast as it fell at rapid speeds. Cloud was left with a deep gash in his sholder but nothing fatal. He knelt on one knee catching his breath and accept what just happened. He forced himself to get up and chase after the others. He ran across the lonely mountains of Nibel trying to find Tifa but she was knowhere to be found. The heavens had finally opened up and a shower of rain poured down soaking him to the bone. The chilly winds swept up clouds of dirt which almost blinded him, but he would prevail nonetheless. The rocky grounds became slippery and more treaterous as he walked along the winding paths. He had to shield his eyes as he walked due to to how much dirt was flying around.

Tifa and her friends had reached a old looking bridge that could only be described as unsafe. She cautiously put one foot onto the first wooden panel; it creaked as she did so. The winds were causing the bridge to sway back and forth which wasn't exactly boosting her morale to cross. Cloud could see a group of children huddled together, he was sure that's were Tifa was. He began to pick up the pace, forgetting about the slippery surfaces. " Tifa don't cross it's too dangerous!"

The group of children turned around to look at Cloud as he came running up.

"Great, what's that loser doing here?"

" Yeah who invited him?"

" Go home Cloud you're not welcome here!"

Cloud walked up to one of the kids who called him a loser. " What you looking at? Cloud you freak"

Cloud tensed his arm and delivered a punch which caught the child on the tip of the nose. It emmited a horrbile cracking sound as his nose began to flow like a tap of blood. Paying no attention to his actions, Cloud walked past the child who was now crying down on the floor. " Tifa, come back it's too dangerous to go any further"

" No i wanna see mom!"

" Tifa you know as well as i do she's not going to over that bridge, let me take you home."

" This has nothing to do with you, any of you, leave me alone!"

Ignoring Clouds warning she ran across the bridge, the creaking sound got worse as she progressed. Clouds eyes were quickly diverted to the main ropes attached to bolts, as they slowly started to unwind. "TIFA!"

He ran as fast as he could across the bridge almost falling off it himself " Get back the bridge is gonna fall"

A few of the children tried desperately to hold the ropes together but it was no use, they were just too weak. The bridge from the main side slid down along with pebbles, rocks and dust. Cloud saw this coming and put his hands inside the pannels they stood on. The bridge was heading straight for the cliff face at a fast speed. Tifa was also trying to hang on for dear life but as the bridge hit the cliff ,she was sent falling. Cloud heard her screams as saw her falling. He looked into her deep brown eyes as she fell. " Grab my hand"

Tifa outstreached her hand to Cloud as she fell. They managed to make contact but it dislocated Clouds arm, sending them both falling of the cliff face and then ...


End file.
